


Les Frères Izumi de Fonte Chocolat (The Izumi Brothers of Fonte Chocolate)

by AwkwardPlatypus13



Series: MELODiOUS MEMORiES~ an IDOLiSH7 High School AU [2]
Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Brotherly Bonding, Dramedy, Fluff, Gen, Slice of Life, Tsunderes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:21:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23644552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwkwardPlatypus13/pseuds/AwkwardPlatypus13
Summary: It’s the weekend after the Tri-High Festival Sing-off. Reiichi and Sawami have to go out of town for a pop-up bakery at a mall and are taking their Granny along, leaving their sons Mitsuki and Iori in charge of Fonte Chocolat. They also hired some temporary employees to help. What shenanigans will ensue while the Izumi Brothers are on their own?
Relationships: Isumi Haruka & Izumi Iori & Izumi Mitsuki, Izumi Iori & Izumi Mitsuki
Series: MELODiOUS MEMORiES~ an IDOLiSH7 High School AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1645912
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	1. Parent-Free!

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone wants to know why I chose Reiichi and Sawami for the Izumi Parents' names:  
> Reiichi (零~ zero; 一~ one)  
>  Zero to reference Mitsuki's love of idol Zero; One to lend to Iori's name  
> Sawami (爽~refreshing, bracing, resonant, sweet, clear; 美~beauty, beautiful)   
>  Sawa because these adjectives fit what I imagine Izumi Mama to be, as well as represent Mikki; Mi to phonetically lend to Mitsuki's name, and reference that Iori got his looks from his parents

A slender, raven-haired woman was bustling around a tidy living room—well, tidy all except for the two large, open suitcases taking up much of the space on the floor. She tossed a pair of high heels into one of the suitcases and gently laid a short pile of dress shirts into the other. “Haaah!” she frantically sighed as she checked her watch. “We need to pick up Granny in an hour, and I still have more to pack! Now wait a minute, where did I put the—”

Iori walked into the living room holding a garment bag. “Mother, I believe you forgot this in your room.”

The woman whirled around to face him and looked relieved. “Ah, there it is! You read my mind, Iori!” She gratefully accepted the bag and folded it into her suitcase.

“You know,” Iori began as he started fussing with and organizing things he subtly added in the other suitcase, “I would have been more than willing to write up a packing checklist, or even pack the suitcases myself, for you and Father.”

Iori’s mom stopped and put her hands on her hips. “Yes, I could have let you do that, but where would be the fun in that for me? Your father barely takes me anywhere, so having the chance to pack is exciting, even if it’s for a work event!”

Iori’s further protests were cut off by a man’s voice by the front door announcing, “We’re back!”

“Reiichi, Mitsuki, welcome back!” she ran over to the entryway and kissed her husband on the cheek before shoving a handful of ties into his hands. “Good, now you can finish packing your suitcase so I can take care of mine.”

“I—but, Sawami,” Reiichi tried to say something in response, but she had already scurried away. He shook his head with a smile and walked with Mitsuki into the living room.

“Welcome back,” Iori said without looking up from his father’s suitcase.

“Hey, Iori!” Mitsuki said cheerfully. “Dad showed me everything to do to close and open the shop. And look! He even gave me the keys already!”

“Remember,” Reiichi advised, “you gotta give those back once we get home.”

“Yes, sir,” Mitsuki looked down, somewhat disappointedly.

“Sawami, I thought you said my suitcase needed finished?” Reiichi asked as he reached around Iori and poked around in his suitcase. “Everything I need is here.”

“Wha?” Sawami leaned over and looked. Then she glanced up suspiciously at Iori, who had moved to the side with a self-satisfied grin on his face. “You just couldn’t help it!” She trotted over and tried to pinch his cheek.

“Mother, Please!” Iori began blushing and ducked away.

“Let your mother have her fun,” Reiichi casually lectured as he closed his suitcase and zipped it, “She won’t be able to for the next couple days while we’re gone.”

“Don’t remind me!” Sawami said with a quiver in her voice. She snatched Iori’s left wrist and pulled him into her side while simultaneously pulling Mitsuki into a hug as well. “I’m going to miss my two good boys. You better take good care of each other, and call me every night.” She alternated kissing the tops of the two boys’ heads, causing Mitsuki to squirm and giggle and Iori to try to push her away while boyishly whining. After a little longer she let them go, wiping away a tear and turning to finish her packing.

Blushing heavily, Iori forcefully cleared his throat and tried to nonchalantly fix his hair. “I’ll make sure everything is taken care of and that things are run as if you were both still here.”

“Hey, shouldn’t _I_ be the one saying that?!” Mitsuki asked grumpily. “I am the older brother here, and Dad did assign me as main manager.”

“I’m sure you both will keep things running in top condition,” Reiichi interjected. “But remember, you can call either one of us if there is a problem.” 

“It is my intention that that will not be necessary,” Iori said confidently. 

“We can handle any problems that come our way! After all, we did grow up in the store,” Mitsuki smiled broadly.

Soon Reiichi was putting his and his wife’s bags into their car, and Sawami was saying goodbye to her boys one more time. 

“You’ll barely miss us,” Mitsuki was trying to convince her, “since you’ll have Granny with you to keep you busy when you aren’t at the stall in the mall.”

“True...well, just remember if you get lonely we’re just a phone call away. Oh, that reminds me, did I pack my cell phone char—”

“I put it in the small left front pocket of your tote bag,” Iori cut in. "I also included a backup external battery charging block in case you need it."

Sawami sighed with a smile and pulled Iori into one more hug. “So dependable! Thank you for always taking care of everyone. Remember to have some fun while we’re gone! And don’t forget, I pre-made dinners for you boys so you don’t have to worry about cooking for yourselves once you close for the night.”

“Time to go!” Reiichi called as he got into the driver’s seat. “Good luck boys!” he waved. “We’ll see you on Monday in time to open shop!”

The two boys stood in the driveway and waved until their parents’ car pulled out and traveled down the road out of sight. “Well, looks like it’s officially just the Izumi brothers for the weekend!” Mitsuki said excitedly.

“Indeed,” Iori nodded, somewhat apprehensively. “We should get our homework done now so we don’t have to worry about it while we work on Saturday and Sunday.”

“Sure, sure, you can do that if you want,” Mitsuki said as he began walking back into the house. “But I’m gonna invite a few of the guys over.”

“B-but Nii-san!” Iori ran after him and tried to stop him. “Our parents only just left! And we told them we would keep guests to a minimum.”

“Ah, see, you answer your own protest!” Mitsuki said with a sneaky grin. “They said ‘at a minimum’. That means they _expected_ us to have friends over! So that makes it totally okay! We’re plenty responsible anyways. What’s the harm in a little fun before work begins.”

Iori groaned and replied, “Just don’t invite _everyone_ , please?”

“Sure, sure!” Mitsuki patted his brother on the back and began making phone calls. 

“Hey, Iori, where does Dad keep the dough hook?” Mitsuki called from the kitchen as he put on an apron.

“Nii-san, why would you need the dough hook?” Iori asked grumpily as he walked in the room.

“I’m making some homemade pizza for the guys and us to eat after we play.”

As Iori got the dough hook off a high shelf in one of the cabinets and handed it to Mitsuki, he continued to ask questions. “Who did you even invite over?”

“Well, Momo-kun and I had been chatting with Tsunashi-kun and found out we’re all into playing sports. So I invited them over to play some soccer. You’re welcome to join us, but I figured you’d rather play Wii Sports with us instead,” Mitsuki held in a snicker, but the smirk on his face betrayed him.

“I can play sports if I truly wanted to, I just choose not to,” he tried to rationalize.

“Sure, sure! Why don’t you help me out, I’ve gotta make a lot of dough!”

“Guess it can’t be helped,” Iori shook his head and relented, grabbing a blue apron off a hook on the back wall of the kitchen.

A little while later, they had several lumps of pizza dough scattered about the counter. Mitsuki was just finishing making a large batch of pizza sauce when the front doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it for you, Nii-san!” Iori quickly put down the bowl he was washing, and after drying his hands he hurried to the door. 

Before he could even utter a greeting as he opened the door, a soccer ball flew directly at his chest, and a mischievous voice yelled, “Think fast!”

Iori stumbled back and tried to catch the ball, but he only managed to make a startled and disgruntled wail as he fell backwards onto his rear.

Momo kicked off his shoes then rushed in laughing and offered a hand to him. “Sorry, Iori-kun! I was expecting Mitsuki-senpai!”

“It’s fine, Sunohara-san,” Iori replied with a hint of irritation as he accepted Momo’s hand and was pulled back on his feet. “Welcome to our home. Nii-san is in the kitchen.”

Mitsuki peered his head out of the kitchen doorway and called out, “Hey, Momo-kun, good to see you! Make yourself at home! Tsunashi-kun should be here soon too!”

As he said this, a knock came at the door Iori had just shut. He opened it, and this time was met with a cheerful smile. “Sorry for the intrusion!” Ryuunosuke said as Iori stepped back to give him space to enter. “I didn’t want to show up empty-handed, so I brought some drinks.” 

“Ah, thank you. Nii-san should be done soo—”

“Hey guys!” Mitsuki came out of the kitchen and joined them. He held out his right fist, and Momo and Ryuunosuke joined him in a three-handed fistbump. “Glad you could make it!”

“There was no way I’d miss out on unsupervised fun!” Momo said with a laugh. “Hey, wanna play soccer in the house?” He playfully kicked his ball between his feet.

“Absolutely not!” Iori planted his foot atop the ball. “Mother never lets us do that, and I have no intention of starting just because she’s not here.”

“Then let’s just keep it outside then,” Ryuunosuke suggested, trying to get Iori to settle down. “Are you gonna play too, Iori-kun?”

“I wanted to complete my homework, so, no I won’t—”

“Aw, Iori, come onnnn!” Mitsuki whined. “Just play a little with us! We’d be an uneven group without you!”

“But really, Nii-san, I should get my homework out of the way now,” he tried to protest.

“You mean you’re going to turn down the opportunity to have an epic battle between the Incredible Izumi Brothers and the Sporty School Athletes?” Mitsuki tried to sound as disappointed yet inviting as possible, really milking his disappointed expression.

Iori fought back valiantly, but alas, one look at his brother’s face made his will break. “Fine, I’ll join you, Nii-san, but promise me we will make time for homework before the weekend is over.”

“Wahoo!” Mitsuki cheered and jogged to the staircase, ignoring his brother’s question. “Iori and I just gotta go get changed and we’ll be right back, guys! We’ll meet you outside!”

Iori sighed and briskly followed after his brother. 

Ryuunosuke sighed wistfully and smiled. “Iori-kun kinda reminds me of one of my little brothers.”

“Ah, that’s right, you mentioned you’re a transfer student,” Momo observed. “I bet you miss your family. I know I’d probably miss my sister a lot if I left home. After all, she introduced me to my favorite music.”

“Yeah, I do miss them a lot, and I hope they’re doing alright without me. But next break we get, I’m going back home for a visit, so I have that to look forward to.” Ryuu smiled broadly. “Well, we should head outside and wait for them now.”

It didn't take Mitsuki and Iori long to join Momo and Ryuunosuke outside. They set up makeshift goals at either end of the lawn and assigned roles. At first Iori and Ryuunosuke were the goalies, but they soon realized the Izumi Brothers were at a disadvantage since Ryuu was so much taller and could block much better than Iori. So instead, they got rid of the concept of goalie and just played two on two. Despite Iori’s requests to stop after a few games, Mitsuki insisted they continued until they won at least one game. It wasn’t until nearly dusk that they managed to win, so after that game they decided to call it a day.

“I’ll get the pizzas started!” Mitsuki announced as the four boys went back into the house.

“We can help!” Ryuunosuke offered. “It’s been a while since I’ve cooked in a full kitchen, so it’d be nice to help out.”

“Then come on through and wash up!” Mitsuki led them into the kitchen and began getting all the ingredients out after washing his hands. “We’ve got lots of toppings, so choose whatever you like!”

“Everything looks delicious as it is!” Momo exclaimed while Iori placed lumps of dough on each of the personal-sized pizza pans.

Once everyone had chosen their toppings and put their completed pizzas in the oven, and the four boys put on clean clothes and collapsed in the living room to wait for their dinner.

“I’m exhausted now,” Mitsuki said as he slid halfway off the couch.

“That’s why I wanted to stop earlier…” Iori mumbled as he tried to stretch out his legs while sitting on the floor. “We’re going to be exhausted tomorrow.”

“So you guys have to run your parent’s business for two days, huh?” Ryuunosuke asked after taking a sip from his drink.

“Yep! The senior staff will be there to help us out if we need it, and Dad hired a few temporary workers to offload some of the work.”

“If only we didn’t have extra practice this weekend,” Ryuu said regretfully, “I would have volunteered to help out.”

“Thank you for the sentiments, Tsunashi-san, but we should get through the weekend just fine. With Nii-san in the kitchen, and me out front helping manage things, we should have Fonte Chocolat running just fine.”

“I’ll be sure to come visit you guys while you’re working!” Momo smiled, “I might even bring a friend along.”

“We’ll look forward to having you!” Mitsuki said with a wide grin.

Around the time everyone had their fill of pizza and were relaxing and recounting what happened on the last day of their schools’ festivals, Momo’s cell phone rang. He answered it and talked to the person on the line for a couple minutes, then hung up.

“Well, looks like that’s the end of the fun,” he said, peeling himself off the couch and picking up his soccer ball. “My mom says I gotta get home. Thanks for the fun! We should make it a tradition to do this.”

“That’s a great idea!” Ryuunosuke said happily. “Today was fun, I’d love to do it again. Looking at the time, I should probably head back too. I have swim practice plus a vocal coach session with Tenn and Gaku tomorrow. Thank you again for inviting me! And, Iori-kun, nice job out there. You held up against us pretty well.”

“It was nothing,” Iori tried to put off the compliment, “Nii-san tried to teach me when I was young, so it’s all thanks to his efforts.”

“Aw, that’s sweet of you to say, Iori!” Mitsuki put his arm around his brother and squeezed him before he could protest. Then he got up and walked his two guests to the front door. “Hope you get home alright, and thanks for coming!” He and Iori waved goodbye as the two said goodbye and began to head to their homes. “Well, that was fun,” Mitsuki said satisfactorily before flopping back on the couch. “But now I am beat! I’ll just rest...here...a little while...before cleaning...up…”Mitsuki’s voice slowly trailed off and transformed into a snore.

“What did you say, Nii-san?” Iori looked up from picking up the empty soda cans. “Nii-san? Huuu, he fell asleep already.” He shook his head, yet had a warm smile on his face. He tossed the cans into the recycle bin, then grabbed a throw blanket from off one of the armchairs and draped it over his brother. “Goodnight, Nii-san.”


	2. Hop to Work!

The next morning, Mitsuki startled himself awake. “Uwaa! We gotta open the store!!! Oh, wait a second,” he calmed down as he looked at the clock above the TV, “It’s only 7:19, I’ve got plenty of time.” He pushed the blanket aside and got up from the couch. “Iori cleaned up on his own, didn’t he.” Checking the kitchen and confirming his suspicions, Mitsuki chuckled. “That kid can’t leave anything undone. Doesn’t seem like he’s up yet, so I should probably make breakfast.”

Mitsuki whipped up a quick bowl of pancake mix and began heating up the griddle. With still no sign of Iori, he started cooking a few regular round ones for himself. Then he put the rest of the mix into a piping bag and started to shape the pancakes like smiling rabbit faces. 

He checked the clock once the pancakes were done, and seeing that it was 8:00, he decided to go check on Iori. He creeped into Iori’s room and sneaked up to the side of his bed. Iori was bundled under his covers, still very much asleep. His mouth was partially open, and he was softly snoring. Mitsuki chuckled when he noticed the top of the rabbit plushie Tsumugi had given him poking out from the sheets. Then he noticed that Iori’s foot was exposed and chuckled more sinisterly. He tiptoed to the end of Iori’s bed, and very lightly grazed the nail of his pinky up the sole of the exposed foot.

“UUUWAAAGHUHHHH!!” with reflexes almost faster than a cat’s, Iori screeched and flung himself out of bed. He was so tangled in his sheets, however, that he tumbled face-first onto the floor. It was then that he heard Mitsuki’s raucous laughter. “NII-SAN!” He pushed himself up and untangled himself. “That was not fair!”

“I’m s-s-sorry, I-ori,” Mitsuki said as he caught his breath. “I didn’t think you’d freak out that much. But you did oversleep, so I had to wake you up somehow.”

Iori shot to his feet and looked at the clock. “I could have sworn I set an alarm! I must’ve been too tired after cleaning up. I need to make my bed, get dressed, make breakfast—”

“Ah, don’t worry! I already made breakfast! I’ve got pancakes staying warm on the griddle, and you know what? They are special pancakes!”

Iori’s eyes shone for an instant. “A-are they bunny pancakes?”

“Maaaaybe!” Mitsuki said playfully and walked towards the door. “Come down soon and there might just be fresh whipped cream and berries to go with them!”

In record time, Iori was dressed and sitting down to breakfast. Iori sneaked a photo of his food while Mitsuki had his back turned and almost didn’t have the heart to ruin the adorable face of his breakfast. Nevertheless, they had work to get to, so the two of them scarfed their food down. It was a little past 8:30 when they locked up the house and began the short walk down to Fonte Chocolat. They went to the back to unlock the door and were met with the irritated faces of two employees dressed like waiters and an older lady in a chef’s frock.

“Brothers Izumi,” the chef said with a French accent, “you are late! Now we will have to rush rush rush to get the place ready!”

“We’re really sorry, Madame Lisette!” Mitsuki said as he fumbled with the keyring to unlock the door. “But we really aren’t even that late! Besides, Dad said he did some extra prep work to make it easier for us to start off the day.”

“Those temporary employees better be here soon,” one of the employees, a tall man in his thirties, commented as he walked through the door Mitsuki was holding open.

“How many are there, Yamada-san?” Iori asked, beginning to take chairs off their tables and place them rightside up on the ground.

“There should be three coming both today and tomorrow. They’re high schoolers, so I heard.”

“Dad wouldn’t have hired our friends without telling us, would he?” Mitsuki stuck his head out of the kitchen and asked.

“Less chit-chat, more stirring the puff pastry dough!” Madame Lisette hollered from within the kitchen, causing Mitsuki to yelp and scramble back to work.

“Whoever they are, I hope they are obedient hard workers,” Iori commented to himself.

As if they were summoned by Iori’s words, a brunette-haired boy around Ryuunosuke’s height and build and a mostly sandy-haired boy around Nagi’s height showed up at the back door. “Sorry for the intrusion!” they called out at the same time.

“You two must be the temp workers?” Yamada inquired as he set a broom down and walked over to greet them.

“Yes, sir! I’m Fushimi Omi, and this is Minagi Tsuzuru. We look forward to working with you the next two days,” the brunette said, ending his last sentence with a bow.

Mitsuki’s head popped out from the back room, and when he saw the two teens he came fully out. “Omi! I didn’t know you volunteered to work here! Tsuzuru, I had a feeling you’d be one of them, since you’re always taking part-time jobs,” Mitsuki said with a chuckle.

“Mitsuki-senpai! Your dad said it would be a fun surprise so he told me not to say anything. He asked if I knew anyone else from the club willing to help out, so I suggested Tsuzuru-kun,” Omi explained with a pleasant smile.

“Then do you know who the third temporary staff member will be, Fushimi-senpai?” Iori asked.

“Just Omi is fine, Iori-kun. But anyways, no, I don’t. Your father said he had already found one by the time he called and asked me.”

“Let’s wait a little longer for this other person to show up before I start assigning tasks,” Mitsuki said to Yamada.

“Let me know whatever you need me to do,” Tsuzuru spoke up, “Register, busboy, dishwasher, waiter, kitchen help, I can do it all.”

“I bet you can, with all those brothers you take care of! I wish Iori would let me take care of him more often.”

“Nii-san, you do enough already,” Iori insisted. “You needn’t concern yourself with worrying about me.”

“See?” Mitsuki looked hopelessly over at Omi and Tsuzuru. “We big brothers have it hard, huh?”

Omi chuckled, “Sometimes we do. To solve arguments with my brothers, we usually have to wrestle it out.”

“No wonder you’re huge,” Mitsuki said somewhat enviously. “Hey, Iori, next time we fight, let’s wrestle!”

“Absolutely not, Nii-san!” Iori said with a frazzled expression. Before Iori could go into the reasons why that would be a terrible idea, a knock came on the glass door of the main entrance. He walked closer to the door and warned, “I’m sorry, but we do not open for another fourt—You!” He stopped short of the door behind which stood a mint-haired teen with his hands on his hips. Iori turned around abruptly without another word.

“Iori! Who is it?” Mitsuki came around the front counter to investigate.

The teen banged on the glass and shouted, “Oi, don’t walk away from me! I’m supposed to work here! Hey!”

“Isn’t he from ZOOL?” Mitsuki asked once he caught a glimpse. “Isumi-kun, wasn’t it?” 

“Nii-san, stop walking towards the door, he is probably planning something nefarious.”

“Let’s just hear him out, he said he’s supposed to be here. Besides, why would he do something bad to us?” Mitsuki unlocked the front door and began to open it.

“I have my theories,” Iori answered vaguely, crossing his arms.

Haruka walked in with a huff. “Geez, if I woulda known I’d be treated like this, I never would have called the number on that flyer and let that guy convince me to take the job. Wait a sec,” he moved in closer and stared at Iori and Mitsuki. “You’re two of those guys from IDOLiSH7! Oh just great, I should just leave no—”

“Don’t run off just yet!” Mitsuki ran in front of Haruka to stop him. “Please don’t leave us in a lurch. My dad probably chose you for a good reason, so please, stay and give it a try.”

Haruka glanced around with a scowl. “Ugh, fine. I need the extra money anyways, so not like I have much of a choice.”

“Nii-san, are you sure—” Iori had tried to lean in and whisper to his brother, but got cut off.

“It’ll be fine, Iori. Remember, Dad put me in charge, so I can handle things.” Mitsuki turned to the other two temporary workers. “Alright, guys, everyone’s here! Omi, Tsuzuru, this is Isumi Haruka. You might recognise him from ZOOL, one of the groups we competed against in the sing-off. I hope we can all work well together these next two days. Ah, Iori, can you pass out what they need?”

Iori went behind the counter and then distributed to each person a white button-up shirt, an unlabeled nametag, and a black waist apron. “Here are your uniforms, feel free to use this pen to write the name you would like to be referred to on your nametag.”

“Alright, now to assign tasks. Omi and Tsuzuru, I know what you're good at, but,” Mitsuki looked at the name Haruka put on his nametag, “Haruka-kun, what do you think you can do?”

“I dunno, I just took this job ‘cause I thought working in a fancy sweets place could get me some money and free treats.”

“Fair enough,” Mitsuki couldn’t help but chuckle. “Then for the start of the day, these will be your roles. Omi, you’re in the back with me and Madame Lisette. Tsuzuru, you’re on register and front case duty. Haruka-kun and Iori, you’ll be waiters. Haruka-kun, Iori can show you how to do things if you need it.”

“Nii-san, please,” Iori tried to insist.

He continued on, ignoring him, “If any of your jobs aren’t working out after the morning rush, we can switch things up, but please work hard at the task you’ve been assigned. And if you need any help, guys,” he looked at the three temp workers, “just come find me, and I’ll be more than happy to help. Now then, let’s finish getting the tables set up and the morning pastries done!” He politely bowed to dismiss them, then ushered Omi into the kitchen.

“Alright, boys, let’s wipe down the tables, set up the table decor, and then we have to prepare the silverware sets,” Toyonaga, who was in charge of the waiting staff, instructed as she adjusted her apron and tightened her ponytail.

“Why do we gotta wipe down the tables?” Haruka questioned as Yamada handed him a rag. “Shouldn’t you people have wiped them down before you closed up the day before?”

“You never know what could have settled from the air or transferred from one of the chairs when we put them up for the night,” Iori explained. “We want things as clean as possible for our customers.”

“Just sounds like more work to me,” Haruka muttered as he haphazardly sprayed cleaner on a table and wiped it down. As he continued his task, he noticed Iori was following not far behind and checking over the tables Haruka had just cleaned. “What, you don’t trust that I cleaned them good enough for you?”

Iori straightened, a bit startled. “N-no, I was just ensuring the tables weren’t wet and didn’t need drying off with another rag.”

“Whatever,” Haruka huffed, “just stop following so close to me, you’re creepin’ me out.”

“Sorry,” Iori said with a mildly confused scowl and lingered until Haruka had walked away before he wiped a mark off of the table.


	3. Diamond in the Rough

A half hour after the temporary workers had arrived, Omi came out of the kitchen carrying a large baking sheet of fresh pastries. “Mitsuki-senpai sent me out to put these in the case and to announce that it’s the last call before the doors are unlocked!”

“Alright then, everyone,” Toyonaga said loudly, “make ready for the morning rush! Tsuzuru-kun, be sure to have a deft speed with the pastry counter and register. Haruka-kun, quit scowling and be ready to be friendly towards customers.”

Mitsuki came round with the keys and opened the door for the three people who were already lingering out front. “Welcome in, to Fonte Chocolat!” He declared, his arms outstretched from his sides. The Izumi Brothers are here to serve!”

The first few customers were regulars who had come by to check on how the boys were doing running the shop on their own. Mitsuki chatted with them for a little while before he excused himself to the kitchen and left them in Iori’s care.

“Please, help yourselves to these tables over here,” Iori said, then gestured with a head nod for Haruka to follow as he ushered a couple and an older lady to two tables along the back wall. “I will be your server today, and for you two, Isumi-san will be yours. Please call us over when you know what you would like.” He passed out menus, then bowed and walked away. “Pay attention for when they call for you,” Iori instructed Haruka.

“Yeah, I know,” Haruka grumbled. “This isn’t my first job as a waiter, y’know.”

“Then you should know a welcoming smile is a critical aspect every wait staff should possess,” Iori retorted as he watched more people come in.

Haruka forced his best fake smile before rolling his eyes and turning back to check on his assigned table. The man waved Haruka over, so he briskly walked back to their table. “What would you like?” he asked as nicely as he could, which still sounded like he was tired of being there already.

“What would you recommend?” the lady asked, mostly out of curiosity.

“I dunno,” he shrugged carelessly, “I haven’t gotten to try anything here yet. I guess that sweet potato pastry would be alright if you wanted some sad little breakfast. But the french toast has carmelized nuts and whipped cream, so I’d totally get that instead.”

“You put up a good point,” the man chuckled. “I’ll have a coffee and the french toast.”

“I’ll have a green tea and the sweet potato pastry,” the lady said surly.

Haruka held back a snicker as he accepted the returned menus and went up to the front counter to relay their order. He leaned against the counter as Yamada began preparing the coffee and green tea. Iori was seating another couple and explaining the menu to them. Haruka rolled his eyes as he watched Iori smiling as he scratched down their order in his notepad. “That guy’s so two-faced,” he muttered just a little too loudly.

“Hm?” Yamada looked up, raising an eyebrow. “Are you talking about Iori-san?”

Haruka cringed for a second before turning around to face him. “Yeah, so what if I am. He treated me like I was some kinda criminal when all I’m trying to do is get this dumb job over with. But now he’s over there smiling and being a suck-up.” 

Yamada shook his head. “Iori-san is a complicated one. He doesn’t always mean to be cold, but he’s very protective and wants to see the best from people. Yet it takes a lot to gain his trust. Just do your job as best as you can, and watch your attitude doesn’t get to the guests. Anyways, the drinks are done.”

Haruka put the coffee and tea on the serving tray and stopped short before picking it up. “Woah,” he murmured as he looked at the rabbit design in the foam of the coffee.

“You like that?” Yamada said with a shred of pride.

“Er, nah, i-it’s nothin’,” Haruka quickly said, picking up the tray and hustling over to the table. He set their drinks down somewhat carelessly and just nodded when they said thank you. He went back to the counter and received their food from Omi who had just come from the kitchen. Glancing around to make sure nobody was looking, Haruka snatched a glazed nut from the plate and popped it in his mouth. As he savored the sweetness and delivered their food, he said a quick “Enjoy your meal” before wandering off.

Iori was bustling between three tables and was seating a fourth. Before he could grab a set of menus, Toyonaga intercepted him. “Iori-san, give two of your tables to Haruka-kun.”

“But I am fully capable of—”

“You’ve only let him have one table so far, give him more of a chance, or your father hired him to help you out for nothing.”

Sulkily, Iori walked over to Haruka, who had been peering into the pastry case. He tapped him on the shoulder and held out the menus. “Here, those two tables need taken care of. If you could give the table of three their menus and take the other table’s order, please.”

“Whatever,” he responded, taking the menus and walking away to do as he was told. He tried to smile a little as he passed out the menus, but as he took the order from the person at the other table, he began to get uninterested.

Iori shook his head and got back to work, trying to ignore him. However, he found himself continually looking up and watching what Haruka was doing. When the table of three’s food was ready, Iori watched as Haruka easily handled the large serving tray. However, as he watched him start walking with the table of one’s french toast, he saw Haruka take a spoon from his apron and take a small bit of whipped cream off the top of the french toast, quickly eat it and drop the spoon back into his apron before approaching the table and delivering the food.

Thoroughly disgusted, Iori marched behind the counter and into the kitchen. “Nii-san!” He stormed up to his brother, who was currently making an omelette.

“What’s wrong, Iori?” Mitsuki asked, as if he had been expecting him.

“Isumi-san working as a waiter is not working out, at all. His attitude is lax, he says unprofessional things to customers, and what’s worse, I just witnessed him steal whipped cream from a customer’s plate!”

Mitsuki shook his head regretfully. “I was hoping he would’ve lasted a bit longer as a waiter. Have him come back here for me, please.”

Iori nodded and hurried off. A couple minutes later he reappeared with a churlish Haruka following him. Iori tried to linger, but Mitsuki sent him back out to do his job.

“Haruka-kun,” Mitsuki began as he plated the omelette and passed it to Omi to send out. “Come have a seat with me real quick.” He led him further into the kitchen to a chest freezer. He hopped up and sat down on top of it. He patted the area next to him, signaling Haruka to do the same. “I heard things aren’t great out front right now.”

“I’ve been doing as I’m told,” Haruka said in a defensive tone.

“I’m sure you have! You seem like you wanna work, but your attitude isn’t reflecting well in front of our guests. Also, one of the other employees caught you dipping into food before serving it to a customer. I wanted to know if you could give a reason why you’d do that.”

Haruka hung his head and kicked his feet aimlessly. “I dunno, I just felt like it.” Just then, Haruka’s stomach growled loudly. He hunched down as if to try to hide the sound.

Mitsuki raised an eyebrow, then furrowed them. “Wait, have you not eaten anything today?”

Haruka remained silent, his stomach doing the talking once again.

“You can’t show up to a job at a restaurant on an empty stomach!” Mitsuki jumped down and headed straight for one of the stoves. “No wonder you’re not really focused and are sampling the food! What do you want? An omelette? Pancakes? Maybe some ri—”

“French toast,” Haruka said, joining him by the stove.

“Alright, but you gotta help me make it. But first, here, have this to tide you over.” He gave him a fruit tartlet off of the tray Omi was working on.

Omi was about to protest, but when he saw how eagerly Haruka ate it, he kept quiet and continued placing berries into the pastry shells.

“Why don’t you grab a couple eggs out of that big fridge, and I’ll get the bread,” Mitsuki instructed, watching as Haruka obediently did as he was told. “Now grab that bowl so we can put the eggs in it. Know how to crack an egg?”

“Of course I do!” Haruka said indignantly. “Kujou-san makes me prepare my own meals most days anyways.” He tapped the egg on the side of the bowl and easily cracked the egg open.

“Is that why you didn’t eat before coming to work?” Mitsuki asked casually as Haruka broke the other egg.

“Kinda,” Haruka mumbled. “I ran out of stuff to make breakfast so I thought I could just skip it. Kujou-san basically just lets me live in the house ever since he adopted his  _ Favored Child _ . I gotta buy my own food, take care of myself. He doesn’t even pay for my school.”

Mitsuki’s eyes widened as he took out two slices of thick bread. “How do you manage all that on your own?”

“I got in on a scholarship, so that takes care of the school, and I can use the extra money that I don’t use for housing to buy clothes and some food. But I usually have to take on a couple odd jobs here and there to cover everything.”

“Wow, you’re pretty responsible then. Here, take the whisk and beat the eggs a little. Then I’ll add a few other things before we soak the bread in it.” Mitsuki stayed silent while he worked, focusing on adding the right amount of spices.

“Don’t you gotta use a recipe or something? Isn’t that how baking works?”

“Not all the time. I still use recipes if they are more complicated, but Madame Lisette is handling those today. But if it’s cakes or things that we usually make at home, I go by instinct. Now we can soak the bread, and the pan should be hot enough.”

Haruka placed the bread in the egg mixture and pushed them under.

“Don’t push down too hard! You’re making this for yourself to enjoy, so you don’t wanna squish the bread and make it ugly.”

“Oh right,” Haruka treated the bread more carefully and very gingerly placed the pieces of bread on the pan Mitsuki had prepared.

“Mitsuki-senpai,” Omi gently interrupted. “Iori-kun is wondering if Haruka-kun is returning soon.”

“Ah! I forgot! Omi, would you mind switching jobs and waiting tables for a little while?”

“No problem! I’m here to help wherever I’m needed,” he smiled pleasantly. “I’ll head out there now, since Iori-kun was looking a bit frantic.”

“Thanks! Tell him sorry for making things harder on him! Haruka, you watch the pan for a little while. I’ve gotta finish laying out the filling to these puff pastries and put them in the oven.”

“But how am I supposed to know what to do?” he grumbled.

“Use your instincts!” Mitsuki responded as he began rapidly slicing strawberries. “When it looks done, just flip them, then when that side’s done, you put them on the plate. The nuts are in that container to your left, and the whipped cream is in the fridge. You’ve seen how I present it, so try to copy it.”

“Tch, expecting me to do all that, lame,” Haruka mumbled to himself, despite the fact that he obeyed. He watched the bread and carefully flipped them, though he waited a bit too long, leaving one side a little too cooked. After trying his best to replicate Mitsuki’s way of stacking the french toast and decorating with whipped cream and nuts, he proudly presented it to him.

“Not too shabby!” Mitsuki held the plate at eye level and inspected it at several angles. “You got pretty close! That settles it.” He handed the plate back to Haruka.

“Settles what?” Haruka asked as he grabbed a fork and began devouring his food without a second thought.

“You’re gonna spend the rest of the day in the kitchen with me. As long as you promise to put as much effort into it as you did making your own food.”

“I guess I can do that,” he replied with his mouth full. “But I need recipes, ‘cause I dunno all those fancy things.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll help you through it,” Mitsuki chuckled.


	4. Tête-à-tête

Once Haruka had finished wolfing down his french toast, Mitsuki had him wash up and exchange his waiter’s apron for a full apron. Then he handed him a couple of hair clips. Haruka scowled at them in mild confusion, causing Mitsuki to give explanation. “They’re to keep your bangs out of your face. You wouldn’t want to have to brush your hair out of your face while you’re in the middle of handling pastry dough, trust me.” With that rationalization, Haruka put the clips in, then followed Mitsuki to a counter space he had set up. “Alright, first task is something pretty simple. I’ve got some eclairs here that need filled, frosted, and decorated. A sample photo of what the design should be is clipped to the cabinet right here.”

“It’s a rabbit?” Haruka tried to act unimpressed.

“Pretty cute, right? My mom came up with it. So anyways, watch me do it, then you can take over.” Mitsuki picked up an eclair pastry in one hand and a bag of custard in the other. He filled the eclair and carefully set it on an empty tray. Then he picked up a piping bag filled with fudge frosting. He slowly built up a thick layer of frosting on the top of the eclair, and with a flick of his wrist he pulled away the piping bag. For the ears of the rabbit, Mitsuki took two mini chocolate madeleines and placed them on opposite ends of the top of the eclair. In the center he placed two almond slices for eyes, and for the mouth he drew a “3” shape with pink frosting. “And there you go! A flop-eared bunny eclair!” Proudly he smiled at Haruka, waiting for a reaction.

“That was...kinda cool,” Haruka tried to say cooly, as his cheeks flushed the more he stared at the finished product.

“Think you can take a try at it?”

“I mean it doesn’t look  _ that _ hard.”

Mitsuki raised an eyebrow. “Alright then, give it a try. Just remember not to overfill them, Madame Lisette hates having to bake more pastry because of mistakes.”

Haruka began trying to replicate the steps he watched Mitsuki do. He nearly overfilled it, but he stopped just in time, though he spilled some custard on the ground.

“Careful,” Mitsuki advised.

“I-It’s because you’re watching me so closely! B-back off and I bet I’ll do it perfectly.”

“Sorry, sorry!” Mitsuki chuckled. “I’ll check back on you in a little bit then.” He walked to the other counter and began checking on a rack of cooling cake layers.

“It looks stupid,” Haruka said a little while later. Mitsuki walked over and tried to conceal a cringe. “I messed up on the stupid mouth, and he looks like a deformed rabbit.”

“It isn’t  _ so _ bad,” Mitsuki tried to rationalize. “Here, just take this frosting knife, and we’ll scrape off the mouth and you can try again. And if we just gently shift the madeleines to point down more...there!”

“I guess that looks better…”

“It’s a good first try! Keep going now. I’ll check on you in a little while. I have cakes to assemble and frost, so just call me over if you need anything.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Haruka answered, half paying attention as he began filling another eclair.

After an hour, Haruka was finishing the last decoration on the final eclair. With great satisfaction, he set it neatly on the tray with the rest of its bunny brethren. He smiled proudly on his two dozen creations, then called, “Hey, Mitsuki-san! I finished!” After getting no response, he turned and looked over at Mitsuki, who was bent over the counter behind him. “Oiiii!” he tried calling out. “Mitsuki-saaaan! Mi-tsu-ki-sa-n!” He poked him in the middle of his back.

“Awa!” Mitsuki jumped. “Haruka-kun!” he said in a chastising tone, “I was making frosting flowers on this cake, and you almost made me mess up!”

“Geez, sorry!” Haruka snapped. “I didn’t mean to. I just wanted to show you what I did,” his voice grumpily trailed off.

Mitsuki’s expression softened and turned into a reassuring grin. “Let’s take a look!” He looked over the tray, occasionally nudging over an almond slice or a madeleine. Nodding approvingly, he stood up straight and put his hands on his hips. “Not bad at all, Haruka-kun! Let’s put this first dozen in the fridge and take the other out to the display case.

“You mean these have to go out there? Like, for people to stare at?”

“Well, yeah,” Mitsuki laughed, “We have to sell them somehow. Now go on, take this tray out there.”

Haruka rolled his eyes but did as he was told. “Hey,” he addressed Tsuzuru, who was just finishing with a customer. “Where should I put these?”

“Woah, those look great!” he said, then looked at the name plates in the case. “Err, let’s see, looks like they go right here, next to where some kind of specialty cake is supposed to go.”

As Haruka slid the tray into the display case, Iori walked past and stopped short, staring intently at the faces of the bunny eclairs. “As expected of Nii-san, they look delicious,” he quietly said.

“ _ I _ assembled them,” Haruka corrected proudly.

Iori choked on his own words, his soft blushy expression transforming into a scrutinizing stare. “Ah, those two in the back do look a bit sloppy.”

“Tch, whatever,” Haruka crossed his arms and headed back into the kitchen before Iori could lecture him for clicking his tongue at him. “I’m still gonna take your first comment as a compliment.” When he went back to Mitsuki, he was back at the cake making flowers. “Were you working on just that one cake while I did all those eclairs?”

“Mhm,” Mitsuki replied, his tongue slightly peeking out from the left corner of his mouth as he concentrated on forming another sakura on the side of the cake. After he finished it, he looked up at Haruka for a moment. “I’ve got a couple more to do after this one too.”

“Why work so hard on something that’s just gonna get eaten, and not even get to eat it yourself?” Haruka asked incredulously.

“Well, just wait a minute and I’ll give you an idea of the reason.” He sprinkled pink sprinkles carefully on the top of the cake, and then placed a glass cover over the top of it. He picked it up and gestured for Haruka to follow him as he walked out towards the front window of the store. On the window display there was an empty space in the middle where Mitsuki carefully laid the cake down. He stepped back and watched. Soon, passerbys stopped to admire the cake, smiling and pointing at the fondant tree with tiny, delicate pink flowers poised in a bed of green frosting with tiny yellow buds peeking out. The sides of the cake had latticework in white frosting and sakura flowers in pink. As Mitsuki and Haruka watched, a young girl with her mother looked especially excited over the cake, and began hopping up and down, pointing at the door as if she wanted to go in. The mother obliged, allowing her daughter to open the door and run inside first.

“Welcome to Fonte Chocolat!” Mitsuki said warmly.

The mother smiled and nodded in response as her daughter ran right for the pastry case. With her nose almost to the glass, the little girl looked at everything with wonder. When she caught sight of the bunny eclairs, she became excited once again and began begging her mother to get one. As the mother agreed and began to fish for her wallet from her purse, Mitsuki pushed Haruka on and urged him to help them out behind the counter.

After shooting Mitsuki a grumpy look, he went behind the counter and asked the little girl, “Which one do you want?”

“That one in the way back, please!”

“That one? Why that one? He’s the messiest one.”

“He’s not messy!” the little girl responded insistently. “He’s adorable! He looks a little grumpy, but I bet he’s just lonely and wants a friend.”

Haruka exhaled sharply and shrugged as he grabbed the eclair with a pair of tongs and placed it in a small takeaway box. As the mother paid Tsuzuru, Haruka leaned over the counter and gave the girl the box. She said an excited thank you and then followed her mother out to one of the tables just outside the shop. Haruka went closer to the window and craned his neck to watch the girl’s reaction as she ate her eclair. The sight of her taking a large bite and laughing as she got frosting and custard all over herself brought a small, satisfied smile to Haruka’s face.

“And that is why we take our time and put so much effort into what we do,” Mitsuki said as Haruka rejoined him in the kitchen. “That look of happiness, knowing you made someone’s day better...it’s a lot like why I love being an idol now that I think about it,” he said with a chuckle.

Haruka furrowed his eyebrows. “How’s it the same?”

“You mean you don’t get a rush of happiness when you look out on stage and see all those people having fun with you?”

“Guess I haven’t thought too much about it. Kujou-san always told me it was better to just ignore the audience and do my best like I was taught.”

“Well that just doesn’t sound fun for anyone. Uwaa, Madame Lisette is shooting us a dirty look! Come on, I have more things for you to do while I decorate those other cakes. Let’s set you up next to me this time”

“Sure, whatever,” Haruka said, his mind still half dwelling on the previous happenings. He vacantly stared as Mitsuki placed down a large tray of smooth, puffy cookies in red, green, yellow, and brown. Then he fetched four different colored icing bags from the refrigerator. “Hey, aren’t those macarons?” Haruka asked, his mind finally focusing.

“You know your cookies!” Mitsuki grinned as he set the icing bags down. “This is a pretty simple task, just put the icing on the right cookies. The green ones are macha, so they get the white icing with green tea flecks. Red is strawberry and gets pink icing. Yellow is yuzu, so use the white icing. And those ones are chocolate, so of course they get the fudge icing. Now, you gotta make sure you are  _ extra careful _ with the cookies, since they are super fragile. Madame Lisette will have both our heads if she has to make more. When you’re done with this tray there are two more behind you.” He then set out a fresh set of frosting tips, two cake layers, and several different bags of frosting for himself.

The two went to work, with Haruka gingerly picking up cookies and adding icing as precisely as possible while Mitsuki began frosting the first cake tier. As they worked, Mitsuki made light conversation, mostly talking shop. He transitioned smoothly into school life by talking about the cooking club, and then as conversation flowed into idol club activities, Mitsuki remarked, “We’ve been practicing even harder after that sing-off. I guess not even sabotage could win against TRIGGER.”

Haruka crumbled a cookie half in his fingers as his body tensed. “Wh-what’d you say?”

Mitsuki continued focusing on his frosting and said, “Oh, you didn’t think we realized? Not all of us did, pretty sure it was just me, Iori, and Yamato, but we didn’t say anything since Momo and Yuki-kun had it handled before we noticed.”

“If you knew what we had done, why’d you still let me work here?” Haruka reluctantly asked as he set aside the broken cookie pieces and started on a new one, his hands shaking slightly.

“Because I talked about it with Momo and Tsunashi-kun last night, and Momo had told us it seemed you guys mostly did it because your manager convinced you to do it. So I wanted to give you a chance and see what you’d do. You seem like a pretty good kid.”

Haruka was silent for a minute as he placed the top on another macaron. “I only wanted to get back at Tenn for...reasons. But even then, what we did changed nothing. Now I’m stuck feeling stupid and like a failure in  _ his  _ eyes, again.”

At this Mitsuki stopped and looked up. “I wouldn’t say you are either of those things. Just look at what you did today. Remember how happy you made that kid earlier? And just look at all those macarons you’ve assembled. You can’t be successful without some effort and cooperation with others.”

“You sound like Touma,” Haruka scoffed. “He’s always trying to get us to take things seriously as a group.”

“Maybe you should take him up on his advice then,” Mitsuki said warmly. 

Madame Lisette walked past with a tray of fresh croissants. “Less chit-chat, more frosting! And don’t break any more of those macarons!”

Mitsuki and Haruka jumped and scrambled back to their jobs while voicing their apologies. Mitsuki laughed, inciting Haruka to break into a smirk for a moment as he went back to work.


	5. Finding a Flow

The afternoon at Fonte Chocolat continued well without much consequence. After the lunch rush, Tsuzuru and Omi changed positions, with Omi on case and register duty and Tsuzuru waiting tables. Haruka helped out more in the kitchen, but also was assigned dish duty by Madame Lisette after he accidentally dropped a half dozen frosted cupcakes on the floor. As the last customers left at closing at 5:00, Mitsuki wished them a good night and locked the doors behind them.

“Great work today, everyone! If we can do the same as we did today, tomorrow will fly by! Before we leave for the day, let’s just wipe everything down one more time and put the chairs up. Iori, can you take care of closing out the register?”

“Of course, Nii-san,” Iori responded as he dutifully fetched a money pouch from under the counter and began filling it with money from the register. He would occasionally glance up suspiciously at Haruka to ensure he wasn’t watching him. One time their eyes met as Haruka looked to see who was staring at him. In response to Iori’s judgmental gaze, he stuck his tongue out at him as he picked up a chair and flipped it upside down to put on the table. Iori scoffed at this display of immaturity and kept his head down as he completed his task. 

Once everything was put in its place and all last minute chores to prepare for tomorrow were done, Mitsuki sent everyone home and began walking home with Iori. “I’d say we did pretty great for our first day on our own!” Mitsuki said with satisfaction.

Iori replied with a nod and a simple “mhm” while looking a few feet in front of them. 

“Just ‘mhm’?” Mitsuki challenged, peering forward to try to read his brother’s expression in the dim light of the street lamps and moonlight. “Did things not go well for you out front?”

“Everything was fine,” he began plainly, “Minagi-san is a very hard worker and very personable. Fushimi-san seems very kind, but his intimidating size and face were making customers nervous. That was why I suggested to Toyonaga-san that we have him switch roles with Minagi-san. Perhaps it would be better to keep him behind the counter to offset his size, or perhaps have him assisting in the kitchen tomorrow.”

“Anything else?” Mitsuki asked, knowing Iori wasn’t done.

“No,” Iori said shortly, biting the insides of his lips, trying to hold a thought in.

“Are you suuuure?” Mitsuki smirked, creeping his hands towards Iori’s side.

“I said n-no!” Iori quickened his pace, but he wasn’t quite fast enough. “N-n-ni-san, please!”

“You’re hiding something,” Mitsuki said tauntingly as he caught up and jabbed his hand into Iori’s armpit.

“Gwahhh!” Iori stumbled as he hunkered down in defense. “Fine, I-I’ll say it!” He cleared his throat as Mitsuki backed off and allowed them to continue walking. “I just thought that maybe….we would...work together...at some point. You spent nearly the entire day with Isumi-san...”

“Ahh, I see,” Mitsuki nodded with understanding. “You felt left out.” Iori made frustrated grumbles of protest as his brother continued talking. “Then tomorrow, I’ll make sure we have a chance to work together in the kitchen. But that means you have to promise me something. Give Haruka-kun another chance at being a waiter with you. I had a little chat with him, and I think you’ll see he’s different than you think. Now don’t give me that look! It’s a fair request.”

“I will give him one more chance,” Iori relented. “But if he doesn’t properly do his job, we will send him on his way.”

“Sure, sure,” Mitsuki patted his brother on his back. “We’ll put him on waiting duty with you in the morning again, then you and Tsuzuru can switch out in the kitchen before the afternoon rush. Now come on, it’s been a long day, let’s get home and heat up one of Mom’s dinners.”

“Then after that we can call Mother to check in, then do some homework,” Iori smiled while Mitsuki just shook his head.

“If I have enough energy to do all that.”

“You did promise we would make time for homework, Nii-san,” Iori warned.

“I don’t remember actually making that promise. But let’s just focus on getting home and eating first.” 

The next morning, the Izumi brothers made their way to Fonte Chocolat twenty minutes earlier than the previous day. They managed to unlock the shop before the rest of the employees got there and began kitchen prep while they waited. Soon Madame Lisette, Yamada, and Toyonaga arrived and began helping. Of the three short-term workers, Haruka showed up first. He came through the side door as he had been supposed to, said a general hello to everyone, then quietly received the rag and cleaning spray that Toyonaga handed to him and got to work taking chairs down and cleaning the tables. Iori watched in surprise at first, but quickly snapped back to work before Haruka sensed his staring.

Once Omi and Tsuzuru had arrived and everything was ready for opening, Mitsuki addressed everyone’s roles for the first part of the day. “Things will be similar to yesterday to start, with Haruka and Iori as waiters, but Omi will be on pastry case and register, and Tsuzuru will be on kitchen staff. Ah, one more thing I forgot we have to do! Since it’s Sunday, our specials changed, so the chalkboard we put out front needs to be rewritten! Though Mom usually does it since her hand is so steady and she has cute handwriting.”

“Nii-san, I could do it,” Iori volunteered.

“Your handwriting is almost too perfect though, Iori,” Mitsuki said gently, “We need the board to stand out with cute little drawings too. Anyone else good at writing?”

“I guess mine is alright,” Haruka said while looking down. “I can draw pretty good if I know what I’m drawing.”

“Great, Haruka, why don’t you give it a try! Iori, you can help him by reading off the specials and make sure he writes everything properly. Everyone else can just wait until opening time or get your spaces ready for work. I’ll be writing out the last few labels for today’s pastries.”

Iori, slightly annoyed that he had to share this task with Haruka, somewhat brusquely gave Haruka the chalk and eraser. Let me know when you are ready for me to read you the specials you need to write down.”

“Yeah, sure,” Haruka said as he erased the easel chalkboard of the previous week’s specials. I guess I’ll write everything out first, then add drawings where they can fit.”

“As long as you ensure that the writing is large enough for people to see from a distance.”

“Well, duh! Mitsuki-san said it’s to make people notice the board, of course I’m gonna write big enough. Alright, what’s the first thing?”

After glaring at him for a moment for his rudeness, Iori answered, “Soup Special:  _ Soupe à l’oignon _ ”

“Soup a la  _ what _ ?” Haruka asked with indignation. 

Iori sighed. “It’s onion soup.”

“Why don’t you just call it that?”

“Well, we are a French cuisine establishment, it makes sense our dishes would be said in French.” 

“Yeah, sure, once you’re in here that makes sense. But there’s no way anyone’s gonna see that on a sign and wanna eat it if they can’t pronounce it. I’m just writing onion soup.” He ignored Iori’s weak protests as he began writing out the katakana. “Okay, what’s next?”

“Entree Special: _Boeuf Bourguignon_ ,” Iori continued quickly before Haruka could complain again, “but Mother always writes this katakana under it also.” He showed Haruka the paper, allowing him time to copy it out.

“At least I’ve heard of that one when I went to that fancy restaurant with Kujou-san a long time ago.”

“I thought you and your step-brother don’t get along,” Iori questioned.

“Pff, I’m not talking about him. I’m talking about my foster dad. Before Tenn came along, Kujou-san used to do all sorts of stuff with me and helped teach me how to be an idol. Now I’ve gotta do everything myself, to prove to him he made a mistake when he basically threw me away.” Haruka’s grip on the chalk tightened as he finished writing. “Well, are you gonna tell me the next thing, or just keep starin’?”

“Ah, o-of course. The last item is Dessert Specials: Apple Tarte Tatin, Opera Cake, and Crêpes Suzette.”

Haruka finished writing everything, then added a few doodles. Iori had suggested a few modifications, which Haruka grumbled over but still took his advice. Once Mitsuki came around and unlocked the front door for the first customers, Haruka set the sign in its place outside. When he got back inside, Yamada was leading customers to their tables. He gestured to Haruka that a table of three was his to take care of and to Iori a table of two.

“Please, remember to smile and be approachable,” Iori half-whispered to Haruka.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Haruka brushed him off and approached his customers. He tried his best to smile at them as he welcomed them. It was more like a crooked grimace, but it was effective enough to make them smile back at him as he handed out the menus. “We’ve got some fancy specials going on today, so you take a good look at the menu. Just lemme know when you’re ready to order,” he began to walk away, but stopped short. “Oh, did anyone need a drink to start?”

Iori kept glancing over to monitor him, but he was surprised at how different he was from the day before. “Perhaps I judged prematurely,” he mumbled to himself as he watched Haruka handle taking an order from another table. 

More customers filtered in, and Iori let Haruka have an equal amount of tables to take care of this time. Since it was a Sunday, they were much busier, keeping everyone on their toes. Iori would make passing suggestions to Haruka, such as: “Your speech is very impolite, try to speak more clearly and professionally,” and “Promote our specials with more passion,” and “Be careful not to mix up table orders.” Haruka would roll his eyes, tell him to mind his own business, then do his own variation of what Iori said.

Things continued relatively smoothly during the first half of the morning. However, Haruka’s patience was running thin with Iori’s micromanagement. Things finally reached their tipping point when Haruka had to prepare someone’s coffee since Yamada was on break. Iori was behind the counter as well, preparing a matcha tea. Just as Haruka was about to pour the creamer, Iori interrupted, “You need to tip the mug more towards where you are pouring if you anticipate making a design.”

After slamming down the creamer container, Haruka turned to face him. “Would you knock it off already?!”

“I-I beg your pardon?” Iori took a startled step back. “Please, lower your voice, the customers—”

“You’ve been picking on me ever since I wrote out the front sign!” Haruka said in a hushed, frustrated tone. “Can’t you just lay off already? This isn’t my first time working in a restaurant, I’m pretty sure I know what I’m doing.”

Iori’s look of confusion turned to hurt. “Th-that was not my intention to be picking on you. I was merely offering suggestions on how to fine tune the quality of your work. You’re doing well”

“Well, your ‘help’ is throwing me off, so do you think you could just keep your comments to yourself?”

“As you wish,” Iori said quietly as he robotically began to whisk the matcha.

Haruka huffed and prepared a new serving of creamer. The silence from Iori was nearly deafening, even though the sound of the whisk and idle customer chatter was easily heard. As he poured in the creamer and made a simple leaf design, he glanced over. “Look,” he said suddenly, “I guess I should...at least say...thanks...for trying to help. You give pretty good advice, even if you give it way too much. And maybe I should...kinda say...sorry...for trying to ruin the sing-off...I’ll—we’ll win on our own work next time, and make something we can be proud to show off. Anyways, your spacey face right now is creeping me out, so I’m gonna go deliver that lady’s coffee before it cools.” He briskly grabbed a tray then carefully placed the coffee on it and brought it to its table.

Iori stayed frozen for a moment longer before he sprang back into action and delivered the tea.

For the rest of the early afternoon, Iori stayed out of Haruka’s way and allowed him to operate at his own pace. He noticed that Haruka seemed more relaxed now, even managing to smile a little more naturally. Customers were noting how cute he was and complimenting him. Iori smiled approvingly and carried on with his work.

“Oi, Iori!” Mitsuki called from the kitchen, “Tsuzuru’s ready to switch out with you!”

Iori’s eyes lit up. “Allow me to finish with my last customer, and I’ll be right there, Nii-san!”


	6. Brothers Baking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little warning, someone accidentally cuts their fingers in this chapter, but not much at all is described.

Iori pinned back his bangs with a few blue bobby pins and skillfully tied on an apron that had his name and a blue bunny face embroidered on the top corner. He briskly yet effectively washed his hands for a minute before appearing at Mitsuki’s side. “Nii-san, are you positive that cake is structurally sound? It seems there is a significantly higher volume of frosting on one side than the other.”

“Hehe, I did go a little overboard with the flowers, but I put a lot of supports between layers, so it shouldn’t fall over. As long as we keep it in the refrigerated case, I think it’ll be fine. Other than that, how does it look?”

Iori leaned in closer to take in the details after Mitsuki stepped aside. It was a two layer cake with pale pink frosting. Different style flowers in pink, red, and yellow trailed around the base of the cake and climbed up the layers in a spiral until they reached the top of the cake where they clustered on one side. Iori nodded satisfactorily, a glint in his eyes. “Exquisite as usual, Nii-san.”

“Thanks!” Mitsuki grinned broadly. “I’ll just take this to the case. In the meantime, go ahead and start getting out the ingredients for the tarte.”

Iori did as instructed, pulling out a canister of flour, a couple pounds of butter, a carton of eggs, a large bag of apples, and a dozen ramekins.

Mitsuki came back into the kitchen chuckling. “Haruka seems to be doing better out there today. A customer just told me they thought it was cute how honest he was about what he thinks.”

“Are you sure it’s okay to leave him out there on his own?” Iori asked as he took out a canister of brown sugar.

“Nah, he’s fine. Toyonaga-san is keeping an eye on him and will coach him when he needs it. I’ll start prepping the apples, and you can get the brown sugar mixture going.” While Iori put a large skillet on the top of the stove, Mitsuki started peeling the apples with a small knife.

“Nii-san, we have the industrial peeler. You’ll cut yourself doing it like that.”

“Relax,” Mitsuki brushed him off, “this is faster than pulling that out. Plus I haven’t cut myself in, like, six months.”

Shaking his head, Iori returned to the recipe pinned to the bottom of the cabinets above his workspace. “Ah, Nii-san, you forgot to get out the brandy.”

“Oh right! Let’s see…” he pulled the store keyring out of his apron pocket. “Dad said the alcohol key was the one with the weird notch at the end.” He unlocked the cabinet and grabbed the bottle of brandy. Before handing it to Iori, he looked contemplatively at the bottle. “I’ve always wanted to see what this tasted like…”

“ _ Nii-san _ !!” Iori hissed and peered over to see if Madame Lisette heard. “You are still three years under the legal drinking age!”

“One little sip isn’t gonna get me drunk, Iori,” Mitsuki rebutted. “Dad always takes a sip of the alcohol before he uses it, says it’s to make sure it’s still good.” He took the lid off the bottle.

“That isn’t how alcohol works! Don’t do it, Nii-san!” Iori pleaded and tried to reach for the bottle. 

However, Mitsuki held the bottle up high, then ducked underneath Iori’s outstretched arm and ran forward. After sticking his tongue out playfiully, he took a quick sip. “Ack-gwaa-blehhahaha!!” his violent coughing turned into laughing at himself as he set the bottle down. “I guess maybe I should wait a little longer before drinking this stuff.”

“Serves you right, Nii-san” Iori said with a chastising tone as he took the brandy and wiped off the mouth of the bottle. “Now back to the tarte tatin.”

“Sure, sure.” Mitsuki wiped his mouth on the back of his sleeve then resumed peeling the apples, and after that he began to slice them. Iori had finished making the brown sugar mixture and started helping slice apples. “So how was working with Haruka?”

“Aside from maintaining an attitude with me when I was merely trying to provide him with constructive criticism, he’s improved since yesterday. As expected after spending the rest of the day working with you, Nii-san. Gya!” Iori suddenly yelped, dropping his knife and clutching his right hand.

“Iori,” Mitsuki said with concern, trying to look at his brother’s hand, “what happened?”

“N-n-nothing!” He kept his hand tightly around his middle and ring fingers. “Ouch! Nii-san, don’t yank at my hand!”

“You cut yourself, now let me see it!” Mitsuki said stubbornly. Iori relented, releasing his grip and shakily extending his right hand. “Eesh! Well, at least they aren’t bad enough to need stitches, but come on back to the office. Dad keeps a big first aid kit on the wall.” He led him through a door at the back of the kitchen and made him sit down while he got the kit.

“Really, Nii-san, I could do it myself—ah!” 

“There’s no way you can take care of this one-handed. Just let me be a big brother and take care of you for once.” Mitsuki cleaned off Iori’s wounds and gently wrapped his index and middle fingers with gauze and tape. You’ve got a smaller cut on your pinky, so I’ll just put a band-aid on that one. Which one do you want?” He held up the box, showing three different Usamimi designs.

Iori’s eyes sparkled, his mouth opening slightly and his cheeks flushing. He cleared his voice and replied, “I-I suppose, i-if I really must choose from one of those ch-childish designs, you may use the Roppu-chan and Pero-chan design.”

“Coming right up!” Mitsuki pulled the band-aid out of the box and undid the packaging. “Hey, do you remember that song I sang to you that time you skinned up your shins after you fell off your tricycle the first time?”

“That was years ago, Nii-san.”

“Yeah but do you remember it?”

“...I do.”

“Pain, pain, go away,” Mitsuki began to sing, looking at Iori and expecting him to continue.

“Iori-chan just wants to play,” he reluctantly continued, despite the soft smile creeping across his face.

“Big bro Mikki’s here to chase you away!”

“Pain, pain, stay away,” Iori sang the last line with his brother as he put on the band-aid.

“There! Good as new!” Mitsuki said satisfactorily as he began packing up the first aid kit. “Now you’ll just have to wear a glove for the rest of the time you’re in the kitchen, gotta keep things sanitary.”

“Thank you, Nii-san,” Iori said softly as he and Mitsuki went back to work.

“All in a day as a big brother! Now, let’s get these apples caramelized!”

The two worked briskly, but carefully, to finish the recipe and put them in the oven. Next, they began making the opera cake. Madame Lisette had made the cake layers already and had them cooling in one of the refrigerators. All that was left was to make the syrup, buttercream frosting, and chocolate glaze, then assemble it. The glaze was for the top of the cake, so they saved making that for last. While Iori made the coffee syrup, Mitsuki prepared the frosting.

“Oi,” Haruka poked into the kitchen, “Table 4 ordered two crêpes suzettes, but Yamada-san just went on a smoke break, so he can’t set them on fire.”

“It’s called flambé,” Iori corrected.

“Whatever,” Haruka replied snarkily. “So who can  _ flambé _ them?”

“Have Omi do it,” Mitsuki instructed while he began lathering the syrup over the cake layers, “we covered how to flambé in a cooking demonstration a couple weeks ago. Iori, go ahead and keep going with this, I’ll whip up the crepes.”

Once Mitsuki rang the bell to alert that the order was ready to be taken out, Haruka took the two plates and the cooking torch. He looked around but couldn’t spot Omi. Instead Tsuzuru was behind the counter getting a pastry out of the case for a customer. “Hey, do you know how to flambé stuff?”

“A little, from self-study. I missed the club meeting where we had a demonstration.”

“Good, come tell me how to set this food on fire.”

After finishing with his customer, Tsuzuru reluctantly followed Haruka over to the table. Haruka set the tray on the unfolded serving table and picked up the torch. He listened to the instructions Tsuzuru quietly gave him, then pushed down on the trigger. An angry blue flame shot out quickly, scorching the serving tray and making Haruka jump slightly. He awkwardly positioned the flame onto the edge of the plate, which almost instantly caught the alcohol on fire. Grinning proudly, he did the same to the other plate, but with more confidence. The guests were thoroughly entertained, clapping and commending him on how well he did. Not knowing how to respond, Haruka flashed a crooked grin and gave them their food once the flames died out.

“Nice work!” Tsuzuru commented as they walked back to the counter. “But, um, you should probably go show Mitsuki-kun what you did to the serving tray.”

“I guess I should…” Haruka made his way back to the kitchen and watched as Iori poured and evened out the chocolate glaze on the opera cake. “Hey, um,” he held the tray out, “I kinda...scorched this. Omi-san wasn’t around either, so I had Tsuzuru tell me how to use the torch.”

“Did you harm any of the customers?” Iori asked with wide eyes.

“Of course not! I’m not  _ that _ clumsy. I just wasn’t expecting the flame to come out so fast.”

“I can’t believe you would do it on your own, you should have—” Iori was falling into a lecture, but Mitsuki patted his shoulder to stop him.

“Next time just come get me, and I can do it. Since nobody got hurt, there’s no harm done. And don’t feel bad about the tray, I set a tablecloth on fire the first time I used the torch,” Mitsuki chuckled sheepishly. “Dad banned me from trying again for a month. Pretty impressive you did so well your first try! Iori’s only done it a handful of times.”

“It’s not like I do not have the skillset to do it. It’s only because I do not like handling the torch,” Iori was quick to stipulate. “I have never set anything but the alcohol on fire before, either.”

Mitsuki laughed again. “Of course. In any case, no more torch for you, Haruka. Keep working hard, only a couple hours left to go!”

Haruka crookedly smiled and with a nod jogged out of the kitchen. The brothers cut up the opera cake and dusted the tops of the pieces with cocoa powder. They brought the trays to the case to replace the empty ones just in time to see some familiar faces enter the store.


	7. Food & Friends

The school-aged customers erupted in whispers and giggles as they watched three tall, handsome boys and a lovely blonde girl between them walk towards the pastry case. Not far behind them was a much louder bunch of five teenagers being led by two more teenagers, also heading for the case.

“Tsumugi-chan! TRIGGER! And it’s Yuki-kun and Momo-kun, and the rest of the guys!” Mitsuki exclaimed. “I didn’t think you’d all make it!”

“And all at once,” Iori muttered, walking around to the front of the counter to try to quiet down his group mates.

Ryuunosuke spoke up, “When Tenn found out I was coming here after practice, he wanted to try out your sweets.”

“Then I thought this would be a nice place to take Tsumugi for a date,” Gaku added, glancing at Tsumugi and smiling.

“Tamaki-kun missed you two at practice, so we decided to come visit,” Sougo explained to Iori.

“Iori, what happened to your hand?” Riku asked with concern, grabbing at Iori’s hand.

“Ouch! It was nothing major, just a small incident. Nii-san very effectively took care of it.”

Riku looked at him suspiciously but let the issue go.

“And I thought it’d be fun to go out with Yuki!” Momo interjected.

“Ho?” Yuki said in a silvery, amused tone, “So you tricked me into a date?”

“A--aahh!” Momo turned red and tried to violently protest, “That wasn’t exactly what I was doing! But I was really happy you agreed to come with me!”

“Fufu, I’m glad you asked me,” Yuki patted Momo’s head as if he were his pet. When he noticed Haruka standing in the back shifting his weight from foot to foot and looking at the floor, he commented to Iori, “Have you had any troubles today?”

Iori glanced at where Yuki was staring and shook his head. “Everything has gone well, aside from a few mishaps. Isumi-san is a better worker than I had anticipated. Now please, allow me to show you all to some tables. Though I do request you try not to disturb the other guests.”

“Momo and I would like a table to ourselves anyways,” Yuki replied. “We have some things to discuss, and your group is just a little too lively.”

Gaku and Tsumugi also requested a separate table, so Tenn and Ryuu joined tables with the rest of IDOLiSH7. Tenn made it a point to stay on the opposite end of the table from Riku. Iori passed everyone over to Toyonaga, who assigned Haruka to Yuki’s and Gaku’s tables and tended to the large group by herself. Haruka was much quieter than he had been with other customers, though he was still fairly polite. After taking their orders, he scurried to the kitchen and stayed away from their tables until he had to deliver their food.

“That twerp seems pretty different than during the sing-off. They were so cocky before,” Gaku commented after Haruka had given them their drinks and food. “But now he looks kinda...tamed.”

“Maybe losing and working with Iori-kun and Mitsuki-kun humbled him. He seems like he is sweet on the inside,” Tsumugi softly replied as she took a bite of her beef bourguignon.

“Ah, you got a little sauce on your chin,” Gaku grabbed his napkin and leaned forward, wiping off her face and making her giggle.

Haruka purposefully kept away from Tenn’s side of the table whenever he passed and would shoot him glares if he looked his way. Tenn would respond with an almost searching gaze. Everyone else just continued not minding him, chatting away and joking with each other. Yuki was talking to Momo, who was much more animated and gesturing emphatically to a pile of music sheets and CDs. Occasionally Yuki would speak loudly for a moment then quiet down again. Mitsuki and Iori were kept on their toes, but once they fell into a rhythm, their actions became so in sync they barely had to exchange a word.

Once everyone had had their fill of food and company, and Fonte Chocolat was five minutes past closing time, Mitsuki and Iori came back out to say goodbye to their friends. “Thanks for coming out to visit us, guys!” Mitsuki said gladly. “But it’s time for us to clean things up and close up shop. Plus, since it’s the start of the week we have to do some extra cleaning, so time for you to be one your way!”

“ _ Oh no _ !” Nagi said woefully, “But I haven’t finished summarizing Magical Kokona Season 3 Episode 7 to Ryuunosuke-kun!”

“Leave him alone already!” Mitsuki growled, “He looks like he’s been politely putting up with listening to you for way too long!”

Ryuu took his head out of his hand and sat up. “It’s alright,” he said with a smile and a hint of sleep in his voice. “It’s nice listening to someone talk about what they are passionate for.”

“You’re a way better person than me,” Yamato chuckled as he downed the last gulp of his root beer. “We should let Ichi and Mitsu get to work.”

“Want any help? I wouldn’t want you to have to try to do stuff with a hurt hand,” Riku offered.

“Certainly not,” Iori answered quickly. “The cleaning tasks we must do involve chemicals that would aggravate your lungs. And you’re too careless that you’d not properly work in a ventilated area and end up bringing on an episode, or passing out.”

“I am responsible enough!” Riku started to protest, but Sougo patted his shoulder and shook his head as if to say protest was useless.

“We appreciate the offer though! But I wanna show Dad and Mom that we managed well by ourselves.”

“Good luck with everything!” Momo called as he and Yuki began to leave.

“Looks like the Izumi Brothers can run a good business,” Gaku commented as Tsumugi waved goodbye to everyone.

“It’s Nii-san’s doing, I merely assisted from the sidelines,” Iori said humbly.

“Aw come on, don’t flatter me,” Mitsuki playfully punched his brother’s arm. “We’ll see you guys at school tomorrow! Thanks for coming by, guys!” He held the door open for everyone and waved as everyone began splitting ways to go home. Once the doors were shut, Mitsuki and Iori both sighed deeply with relief. “Just two days running this place is exhausting!”

“The work’s not over yet,” Yamada smiled pityingly. “We still have to clean. But luckily for you, the temps were nice enough to stick around and help.” He gestured to Omi and Tsuzuru, who were already wiping down tables and mopping the floor, and to Haruka, who was carrying a cleaning bucket of soapy water into the kitchen.

“Ahhh, thank goodness!” Mitsuki said with relief. “Let’s get this done so we can go collapse at home!”

With everyone sticking around to help, the deep clean and next day preparations took just a little over an hour. Iori thanked and dismissed the permanent employees, who in turn congratulated Iori and Mitsuki on a successful weekend on their own. Mitsuki paid the three temporary employees their wages from the two days, and Omi and Tsuzuru went on their way. Haruka lingered for a moment, staring at his earnings as he waited for the two to fully leave.

“I...just thought...maybe, I should say…” he battled against the word for a few seconds, then picked up his head and glanced from Mitsuki to Iori before focusing on the wall between them. “Thanks, for letting me work here.” Before either brother had a chance to react, Haruka rushed out and started jogging home.

After a moment of stunned silence, Mitsuki broke it by saying, “Looks like he’s a better kid than we thought.”

“I-I suppose,” Iori replied woodenly as he shut off the main lights and followed his brother outside. “His actions don’t represent the rest of his group, however.”

“Sure, of course. But it shows that there might be hope that they turn around too. Also shows first impressions aren’t always right. But anyways. I can’t wait to get home and collapse with a reheated bowl of Mom’s curry!”

“That does sound perfect right now,” Iori agreed, his mind wandering to the idea of rest for a moment. “Nii-san.”

“Hmm?”

“We-well done,” Iori said quietly with a tender smile.

“Hehe, thanks, Iori,” Mitsuki clapped his brother on the back. “Good work to you too. We make a good team.” 

“Indeed, we do,” Iori smiled proudly, the two of them walking while the soft night wind tousled their hair.

  
  


_ At the Kujou household--- _

“Ugh, I am so exhausted!” Haruka whined as he began opening the front door. “Huh, why are most of the lights off?” He carefully walked through the living room after slipping out of his shoes. “Usually by now Aya-chan’s watching TV while Kujou-san reads. Heeeeyy!” Haruka called out in a hushed yell, “Anyone hooome?”

The light in the hallway turned on, and Tenn emerged. “Welcome back,” he said plainly.

“Yeah, whatever, I’m home. Where’s Kujou-san and Aya-chan?”

“They left this evening.”

A sense of panic shot through Haruka’s spine and made his shoulders quake for a moment. “Whaddaya mean left?! Left for where?! Is he coming back?!”

“He said he’s taking Aya-chan to New York to start her formal training. He made no indication of when he would return. All I know is that he left me in charge of the house and that he will send us money as we need it. ”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me! He only just came home with you from your training at the beginning of the semester!” Haruka ran his hands through his hair. “He didn’t even say goodbye, didn’t even warn me!”

“I was going to warn you, that’s partially why I went along to Fonte Chocolat. But, you seemed to have no interest in my existence, so I didn’t get the chance. Kujou-san mentioned that it was a last minute decision. Aya-chan held him as long as possible waiting for you to get home.” Tenn crossed his arms and continued talking, “Now, let’s keep this arrangement simple. You keep to your life, and I’ll keep to mine, no need to feel obligated to act like family around anyone.”

“Already planned on doing that. I better still get my allowance just the same.”

“Naturally. Kujou-san said everything will remain the same, he will just be absent for a time. Anyways, I’ll be in my room. Aya-chan set aside a plate of Kujou-san’s katsudon for you. Goodnight.” After lingering for a moment, he turned and walked back to his room.

Haruka dejectedly pulled the plastic-wrapped plate out of the refrigerator. There was a note attached to it: “ _ Dear Haru-kun~~ I’m sorry we had to leave without saying goodbye! An opportunity opened that we couldn’t pass up on! Kujou-san wanted us to leave as soon as we could, so that I can begin training as soon as possible. I wish we could have gone to New York together, but Kujou-san said it wasn’t meant to be for you to come too. I left my recipe book so that you and Tenn-kun can make your own meals. Stay safe and healthy! Love, Aya~~ P.S.- Please try to get along with Tenn-kun.♡  _ ”

“Ugh...Why does she get to do what I always wanted Kujou-san to do for me, too?” Haruka kicked the cabinets in frustration as he waited for his food to reheat. “Well, let’s just give it time. I bet Kujou-san will change his mind again, just like he did to me. I bet he’ll drag her back and abandon her career in four months, tops,” he tried to reason out loud. As he began eating, small tears of angry determination fell from his face. “And when he does come back, I’ll show him, no, I’ll show  _ everyone _ , what I can do, what ZOOL can do.” 


End file.
